Sony vs. Mac but with a much more compelling twist!

[iOrlando]

alot of opportunity costs involved with buying macs. Hence most people dont get the whole pricing thing.

There is a certain cost to using the Mac OS. For example, I am willing to pay 200 or so more to be able to use it. You need to take that into consideration when ordering a mac.

 

[bandrews]

To be honest I loved my Sony Vaio TR2MP. When I bought it nearly 5 years ago for £1500 it was amazing - tiny, wireless, bluetooth, dvd player, 512MB RAM upgradable to 1GB, 1GHz Centrino processor. The only problem I have ever had with it was when I broke the screen (so my fault - not the computer's) and that was with nearly five years of constant use as my main computer for uni work/music/video etc. I have only just changed it for a macbook that cost £1300. While I love the new Mac I still love the fact my Vaio was so small and 5 years later still out-trumps many of these new sub-notebooks and the macbook, I feel will be past it come the end of September. I'm still getting to grips with OSX but much prefer it over Windows.

So, in a very long aroundaboutkindaway I'm saying Vaios are great, macs are great - if you want a Windows machine, go for one.
If you prefer the OSX, get one of those.

 

[kitch95]

If you don't have a problem with vista then there's no reason why you shouldn't go for that because it sounds like a good machine. But if you don't mind waiting then wait until apple updates the mbp and see what you think and remember you can get something like vm ware and run vista or xp on the mac.

 

[zsft]

Get the MacBook for the following 5 reasons

1) People will think you are cooler with a Mac than with a Windows laptop.
2) You will feel cooler than people with Windows machines
3) OS X - Enough said
4) In scientific surveys it has been shown that people with Macs are much cooler then their PC wielding contemporaries
5) Women digg Macs and therefore digg you

Good point.

But I don't digg materialistic women. But that's just me.

 

[Guilfox]

But I don't digg materialistic women. But that's just me.

It's not the materialistic aspect of the Mac that's the attraction, rather it's the life style choice it represents that makes women love Macmen. It's like Fonze vs Richie Cunningham........Ehhhhhh

 

[iMacmatician]

The MacBook Pro has a 15.4" screen, the Sony has a 16" screen; .6" is not a whole lot bigger, and most likely the Sony has the same screen resolution as the MacBook Pro which would thusly make the Sony's screen less dense and therefore less crisp than that of the MacBook Pro's.

It's probably lower (15.4" 1440*900 vs. 16" 1440*810).

Graphics card... well, Nvidea is better than ATI at most tasks from what I recall.

The 8600M GT is better than the HD 3470, I believe, but ATI > NVIDIA in Mac pro apps because ATI has better drivers.

As for the A/V controls, the MBP has them on the Fn keys at the top of the keyboard

They indeed do. And you can still use the Fn keys as Fn keys.

Or wait until Apple does a major update, then they should be in the ballpark again.

They just did a big numerical spec bump, and based on past MacBook Pro history I don't expect that again with this revision. (Maybe they will due to lowering margins.) That being said, I expect some other goodies like a glass trackpad and a case update.

 

[Shackler]

I think Sony would best compare against Apple because of its smaller market share and higher quality computers.

That's true.
And to the OP this isn't a compelling twist all Mac vs. XXXXX threads are exactly the same.

" I can get higher spec. but for a cheaper price what should i do?"

 

[Muncher]

That's true.
And to the OP this isn't a compelling twist all Mac vs. XXXXX threads are exactly the same.

" I can get higher spec. but for a cheaper price what should i do?"

Thank you. I hate these threads. You're asking on a Mac oriented forum. What do you think we'll say?

 

[kingshrubb]

Consumer Reports rates Sony VAIO higher than Apple in everything but the Macbook Pro Like desktop and ultra-portable.

 

[airjuggernaut]

Thank you. I hate these threads. You're asking on a Mac oriented forum. What do you think we'll say?

haha I wonder this every single time too.

 

[winninganthem]

Compared to most other notebook computers in its size class, the Macbook Pro is the lightest. It is a beautiful, well-designed machine. As you'll read on the forums, the build quality varies from system to system, but overall, Apple makes good computers.

If you're in the market for a pro grade notebook, take note that most creative professionals and DJs and whatnot use Apple stuff.

So when you buy a system, consider that comparisons aren't entirely about specs. The overall experience of using it matters too. Mac OS is solid and intuitive. Try it for yourself for a couple weeks and it grows on you. Put all of this in a nice form factor, and hey, you have a nice machine.

 

[surferfromuk]

it really depends of you want to be productive (mac OSX) or counter-productive ( vista). They're both good hardware it's just that OSX is basically maintenance free and operationally efficient leaving you alone to get on whilst vista is high-maintenance and constantly hassling you about stuff leaving you to get angry and impotent. Ultimately, vista will drain your will to live.

 

[t0mat0]

For some reason I got this flash of an image of HP dementors using Vista.

Vista - draining your will to live since 2007.

 

[Slippery Gimp]

Why not have the best of both worlds?

I use 3D Studio Max, which isn't available on Mac OS, only Windows. The only trouble is, I love Mac's since I bought my first one in 2004. After much humming and haahhing I did the only logical thing and bought an iMac and installed XP (not Vista) using Bootcamp. Everything works perfectly, I still use OSX but I can also switch and use XP and 3D Studio Max.

Get the Mac.

 

[pinktank]

you sound like a person that should wait for the new generation

 

[Adrian3300]

I have hade 2 sony laptops and ended up being dissapointed with both of them. Unless you intend on playing a lot of games I would go with the macbook. Switching to OS X was the best computing decision I have ever made!

 

[miniConvert]

I don't care much for tech specs any more. Apple's products are so well thought out, and OS X makes such good, efficient use of the tried-and-tested hardware that they select (they really can't help the nVidia thing), that worrying about having the latest and the greatest is futile.

 

[nomercy0007]

Hey thanks guys so i am very much so convinced to actually buy a macBook 15" now. but i'm going to do as some suggested and wait until the mac book refreshes come out that way i'll have the best at the time. I'm still really surprised at the effectiveness of these Forums. I"m definately doing this more often.

 

[Gaelic1]

Good for you!

 

[neiltc13]

it really depends of you want to be productive (mac OSX) or counter-productive ( vista). They're both good hardware it's just that OSX is basically maintenance free and operationally efficient leaving you alone to get on whilst vista is high-maintenance and constantly hassling you about stuff leaving you to get angry and impotent. Ultimately, vista will drain your will to live.

Well in my experience both are pretty much maintenance free but Vista has a tendency to crash less than OS X, meaning you need to perform fewer application restarts.

 

[Kiyomizu]

I'm in the same boat as the thread starter. After reading and posting about wanting High Def capabilities for the MacBook Pro, I looked at the Sony FW series and was blown away by all the specs that I need for amateur high def video editing and watching Blu Ray movies on my new Sony Bravia 40" HDTV.

I went to the glittering Apple Store in Fukuoka, Japan and had an incredible experience with a "Genius" showing me what a MBP can do. He really convinced me with everything that I expect from an OS to work so elegantly and flawlessly that I was 100% sure that I would buy a 15" MBP.

But I'm teetering and tottering over the FW and the upcoming MBP. I want an English OS so my natural choice would be a MBP because the Sony FW will only come with an pre-installed Japanese Vista Premium... I love OSX and would love to switch to a Mac though...

I'm going to wait until Apple updates the MBP in September and then make a decision but I do hope that even the minimal basic High Def capabilities will come with the the MBP including HDMI output and an optional BD-ROM. That's all I ask for!!

Please please Apple, grant my two wishes.... My third wish will be for World Peace!

 

[tmelvin]

Well in my experience both are pretty much maintenance free but Vista has a tendency to crash less than OS X, meaning you need to perform fewer application restarts.

That is the most idiotic statement I've ever read here...

To the OP: Don't listen to this guy. He has no clue...

Vista will crash far more often than OS X. I've had an MB since March of this year, and have only booted for updates. Otherwise, it's been in sleep mode. It always starts, and works flawlessly. I had never been able to do that with XP or Vista, on factory installed DELL's and HP's. The latter systems always locked up, crashed, or had issues where they would slow down, and have to be rebooted during the day, or in the middle of work.

The biggest hurdle for most Windows to Mac folks is the need to tinker. Windows constantly needs tinkering and fiddling with. I've never owned a Windows system that didn't need it. Nor have I used a Windows system that didn't require a rebuild at least once a year. Some of that mentality carries over to OS X, and it shouldn't. So typically what happens is that the user messes with things too much, and botches a perfectly good working OS, and the result is kernel panics, etc. But that's not the fault of OS X, it's the fault of a user who doesn't know what he/she is doing.

 

[DaveF]

That is the most idiotic statement I've ever read here...

To the OP: Don't listen to this guy. He has no clue...

Vista will crash far more often than OS X. I've had an MB since March of this year, and have only booted for updates. Otherwise, it's been in sleep mode. It always starts, and works flawlessly. I had never been able to do that with XP or Vista, on factory installed DELL's and HP's. The latter systems always locked up, crashed, or had issues where they would slow down, and have to be rebooted during the day, or in the middle of work.

You're too hasty to write off his experiences. I've found OS X to be no more stable than WinXP. My MBP locks up -- like it did last night -- requiring a hard restart every month or two. I don't "tinker". I don't install system tweaks and performance hacks. I just chalk it up to using a modern computer and modern software. There are oddities and hiccups. I wouldn't expect Vista to be much more solid than OS X, but nor would I expect OS X to be far more stable than Vista.